Intersecting Marginalities in Carceral Systems

Sor Juana navigated multiple, intersecting oppressions—as a woman, a mestiza, and an intellectual in colonial Mexico—providing a framework for understanding how mass incarceration disproportionately affects those already marginalized. Her analysis of how systems compound disadvantage illuminates why Black women, Indigenous peoples, and poor communities face highest incarceration rates. Mass incarceration cannot be understood through single axes of oppression; rather, it emerges from overlapping structures of racism, sexism, economic exploitation, and colonial legacies. Sor Juana's intellectual resistance to accepting predetermined social roles models how recognizing intersecting oppressions enables more complete critique. This concept demands examining how criminal justice systems weaponize multiple identities simultaneously, creating barriers that single-issue reforms cannot address. Her life demonstrates that liberation requires acknowledging all dimensions of marginality.